One of the problems in managing networks is the inability to manage a variety of third-party devices installed in local area networks. With the growing complexity of the computer networks, difficulties in establishing communications with a variety of heterogeneous devices and managing the heterogeneous devices becomes increasingly challenging.
Inability to manage third party devices in a local area network is particularly acute when the third party devices are heterogeneous. The problem is usually two-fold. On one hand, it may be difficult to communicate with the third-party devices in the local area network because the devices may implement a variety of communications protocols and interfaces, and it may be virtually impossible to communicate management instructions in compliance with such a variety of protocols and interfaces.
Developing a management application configured to facilitate communications with a vast quantity of third-party devices, which implement different protocols and interfaces, may be not only difficult, but also impractical. In fact, even if such an application was developed to meet today's needs, it would have to be modified each time a new device, incompatible with other devices, is added to the network. Hence trying to develop a management application that would enable communications with heterogeneous devices in local area networks may be an overwhelming task.
On the other hand, it may be difficult to encapsulate control communications intended to third-party devices in a way that is transparent to the owners of the local area networks. In a typical local area network, such as a residential network, a user may be responsible for managing its own network. However, because the user may be unfamiliar with the intricacies of the network management, he may seek some assistance from a service provider operator. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the service provider operator cannot access the user's devices directly, the service provider operator may be unable to debug the user's devices without the user's help. Hence, managing the local area networks in such a way that is both efficient and transparent to the users faces many obstacles and challenges.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.